3 Comments:

I have seen and heard many conservatives describe this past session as a good one for us. I think they are so relieved at surviving a session that they expectd to be much worse, that they are understandably over-optimistic. We did not win. We barely broke even and it took a titanic effort on the part of some legislators, Debbie Pelley, and the Eagle Forum to do that.

It is true that in this session we were able to turn back many of the attempts by statists and leftists to advance their agenda. But we have to get past this defensive mind-set. That is to say, the left launches a new aggressive proposal and when we turn it back, we call it a "victory". But they are one the attack, and we are on the defense. They will come back next time with something like they proposed last time, hoping more people have been conditioned to accept what they once considerd an outrage.

Stopping the ERA was a magnificent defensive victory analogous to stopping a strong team from scoring when they had a first and goal on your one. It was a great victory, but it was a defensive victory. You need offense to win.

Legislators like Womack, Broadway, and Woods did try to take the battle to them and put them on the defensive. Woods got castigated by the Demozette for his work, but my guess is that Jon Woods voting record is almost identical to that of young Greenberg. Unfortunately, our attacks were turned back much more easily than we turned back theirs.

In terms of social issues, we got nowhere on the pro-life issue. Other states are- eight states have passed bans that should test Roe. We could have been the ninth and the more the better on that one. Our efforts on illegal immigration were turned back. Our efforts to stop the court-enabled advance of the homosexual agenda was turned back. Tentative efforts to check judicial tyranny came to nothing. Lakeview still potentially hangs over the ledge's head.

There was a tax cut, but in the context of how much was out there to give back, taxpayers got a very small slice of the pie. And the state passed measures that will put the people in even more debt. Let's not kid ourselves that the fiscal conservatives prevailed here. Strong efforts were made by conservatives to staunch the bleeding.

There were some glimmers of hope in education. The globalist IB program was turned back, and a sensible concurrent-enrollment program was put in place. Virtual schools MIGHT be funded, and the KIPP school was widely praised. The KIPP program is "old-school" except for the excessive length of the school day. Still, the elephant in the room on education is Lakeview, and the ledge did not face down the court bullies. Because of that, they are almost certain to get pushed around again.

All in all, it could have been much worse. I just long for the day when the liberals spend all of their energy trying to stop OUR efforts, and are relieved when only a third of the stuff we propose gets through.

Broadway is a liberal Democrat, and certainly not an activist conservative. He and Womack and Woods are all younger than "young Greenberg," who is an activist conservative. Have you been posting under the influence?